For a collector for an electrical storage device such as a lithium ion secondary battery and a supercapacitor (electrical double-layer capacitor, redox capacitor, lithium ion capacitor, etc.), a copper foil (Cu foil) or an aluminum foil (Al foil) are used, for example. A Cu foil is manufactured by a rolling process or an electroplating process (electroforming process, electrolytic process). Although such an Al foil has been manufactured only by a rolling process, application of an electroplating process is currently being studied. Such an electroplating process is a process in which current is applied between a soluble or insoluble metal (anode) and a peripheral surface of a drum (cathode) which are immersed in a liquid (plating liquid) to form a metal film (plating film) containing a component of the metal to be an anode on the peripheral surface of the drum to be a cathode.
In the above electroplating process, a soluble metal (anode) is dissolved into a liquid as metal ions during current application, and the surface becomes coated with a coat (sludge coat) which is considered as an oxide with progress of the dissolution. Also in the case of an insoluble metal, an oxidation reaction occurs on a surface of the metal (anode) in the liquid, and the surface becomes coated with a similar sludge coat made of the reaction product. The metal (anode) coated with the sludge coat is prevented from being dissolved into the liquid, and therefore is not preferred. Thus, for the purpose of suppressing production of the sludge coat, for example, Patent Document 1 proposes an electrode device (anode for electroplating) having a configuration in which a soluble metal plate is interposed between a prism-shaped zinc (anode) and a current-carrying body. In addition to that, for example, a means for adjusting a liquid composition so as to be suitable to the metal to be an anode (see Patent Document 2) and a means for regulating a structure of an Sn—Bi-based metal to be an anode to suppress production of sludge coat caused by Bi-substitution of Sn (see Patent Document 3) are proposed.
In addition, during current application, a metal to be an anode has a strong tendency to dissolve from the side close to a cathode (peripheral surface of a drum) having a different polarity, and therefore the distance between the anode (metal) and the cathode (peripheral surface of the drum) (inter-electrode distance) gradually increases. The increase in the inter-electrode distance is not preferred since it not only leads to increase in electrolytic voltage resulting in increase in power consumption, but also affects the thickness and quality of the metal film formed on the peripheral surface of the drum. In this situation, for the purpose of keeping the inter-electrode distance constant, for example, Patent Document 4 proposes an electrode device (electroplating device), including plural anode baskets that are movable by being attached to a rotating belt and charged with pellet-shaped metal particles (anode) and an anode baffle plate that is provided with an opening limitedly around the center and has a constant distance to a cathode (inter-electrode distance), and having such a configuration that only a predetermined anode basket is brought into contact with the anode baffle plate to allow current to flow. Also, for example, Patent Document 5 proposes an electrode device having a configuration in which plural metal plates (anode) that are hung by a hook are arranged so as to have a constant distance to a steel plate (cathode) and a state of consumption of the metal plate and the distance to the steel plate (inter-electrode distance) are detected to perform control to remove the consumed metal plate and insert a new metal plate (anode).